


Brainwashing Doesn't Last When A Stark Is Mentioned

by Zola9612



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers Tower, BAMF Tony Stark, Brainwashing, Breaking said brainwashing, Bucky Barnes's Metal Arm, But it doesn't actually happen because Tony gets involved, Chemical aid in memory removal, HYDRA-gate, Howard Stark death, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Male Slash, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Poor Bucky Barnes, Post-Avengers (2012), Post-HYDRA Reveal, Pre-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Pre-HYDRA Reveal, Protective Tony Stark, Wakanda, vibranium
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 06:32:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7033747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zola9612/pseuds/Zola9612
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Winter Soldier sees a video involving Captain America and the Howling Commandos, including Howard. Small memories return of Howard so Winter Soldier sets out to find answers at Stark, now Avengers, Tower. He finds Tony instead. Needless to say, Tony is not happy with what happened to Bucky at HYDRA's hands.</p><p>Fills this prompt:<br/>HYDRA would rather see the Asset dead than in the hands of SHIELD so they issue the biggest manhunt ever, with a sky-high prize for The Winter Soldier's head. Confused and malfunctioning, the Winter Soldier/Bucky chooses to hide in the Avengers Tower - because it's tall and cool, don't judge the man. Enter Tony Stark, who finds him, takes care of him and when the legions of assassins and hitmen storm the Tower, he straight up murders them all in fit of protective rage. Basically Protective!BAMF!Tony with lots of fluff (and/or hurt/comfort) here and there ^^</p><p>-Artistic liberty was taken in filling this prompt aka ignore the first sentence in the prompt. Also, this is set before CA:WS.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lantia4ever](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lantia4ever/gifts).



> Disclaimer:  
> I don't own any of the characters or objects mentioned in this story. If I did, Civil War would not have happened.

Tony couldn’t believe what had just happened. One moment, he was in his Tower workshop doing some repairs on the Iron Man suit and the next moment, he was against the wall with a metal hand around his neck. “Where’s Howard,” a gruff voice asked. Tony could barely breathe or see so he tapped the arm holding him up and pointed at his throat. The grip loosened to a point at which Tony could answer. “He died twenty-one years ago in a car accident,” Tony explained while getting his first look at his assailant. The man had long brown hair with grey-blue eyes. Suddenly, Tony was dropped and the man’s hands went to clutch at his head.  
“No, it wasn’t an accident. I….I was told to kill him. He……he got too close to the truth. My handlers didn’t like that,” the man said, looking confused as he confessed to killing Tony’s parents. Tony could sense something wasn’t right about the confession, though. The word handlers triggered alarm bells in his head. “JARVIS, scan our guest for any kind of injuries and his identity,” Tony told his AI. While Tony waited on JARVIS’s results, he introduced himself. “My name is Tony Stark. I’m Howard’s son. If there is anything I can do to help, I will do it.”

The man looked up at Tony and tilted his head like a confused dog would. Tony got his first clear look at the man and inhaled sharply. He knew that face. It was in all the pictures Howard had shown him of the Howling Commandos. It was the face of Bucky Barnes, Captain America’s best friend.  
“Sir, there appears to be a massive amount of electrical damage inflicted upon our guest’s brain. The damage appears to be repairing itself but his memory cortex is still damaged. He will remember new memories but it will take some time for him to remember older memories. According to facial recognition software, our guest is Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes. Also, it appears that the metal arm is attached to his spine and ribcage which is causing continuous damage to his skeletal system and the attachment zone of his shoulder,” JARVIS said, interrupting Tony’s thought process. At the sound of JARVIS’s voice, Barnes jumped and retreated into a corner, shaking like a leaf.  
“Hey, it’s okay. That’s just my AI, JARVIS. I created him to help me with whatever I need. All he did was tell me that you’ll regain your memories and that I need to replace your arm. It’s hurting you,” Tony said to Barnes in a soft voice. Barnes flinched and said, “The Asset is to ignore pain unless it interferes with the mission. Pain is within acceptable limits.” Tony’s jaw dropped and his brain stopped working. How much torture and brainwashing did Barnes go through? “And what is your mission,” Tony asked in a neutral tone. “I am to kill the King of Wakanda while he is visiting New York. HYDRA wishes to gain access to the country’s supply of vibranium.”  
Tony reeled backward. HYDRA?!?!? That organization was supposed to have been destroyed at the end of World War Two. Captain America died stopping them. Although, what other organization could have given Barnes the metal arm and brainwashed him? Tony humphed and asked Barnes, “So why haven’t you done so already?”  
“I saw a video about Captain America and the Howling Commandos. My head hurt and I remembered Howard. I knew he’d have answers to my questions. I wanted the truth before I completed my mission,” Barnes replied. Tony thought for a moment and said, “I’ll tell you the truth if you let me look at your arm and fix it.” Barnes looked thoughtful for a moment and nodded.

Tony knew within seconds of examining the arm that everything about it had to come off. The current set-up was a constant source of pain for Barnes, fed some sort of unknown drug into his system, and Tony was not about to let his childhood hero’s best friend walk around in pain and in HYDRA’s control. Though, what to tell Barnes to get him to cooperate?  
“The arm is under-performing for the mission. It has no way of cloaking itself to prevent civilians from noticing and raising the alarm. I can fix that but the current set-up of the arm has to go. I will need to replace how it connects to you and the arm itself,” Tony explained methodically. Barnes looked slightly miffed that HYDRA would supposedly send him out unprepared. “You will fix it and answer my questions?” “Of course, but you will have to be awake for the entire process. I can multi-task and distract you by answering your questions,” Tony said, hoping his experience with the arc reactor would be able to help him with Barnes’ arm.

It took two days to come up with a plan to remove the arm’s connection to Barnes’ spine and ribcage and one day to implement the plan. Tony was nervous going into the surgery. He didn’t want to accidentally kill Barnes. He had the neural transmitter arm base prepared to be attached when the HYDRA arm came off. The new base would allow for interchangeable arms and would give Barnes the ability to feel things like a real arm would.  
Tony had just finished removing the final link between the HYDRA arm and Barnes’ nerves and blood vessels when he started screaming and thrashing around. Tony panicked and tried to find out what was wrong. Barnes began to mutter, “My head.” Tony stopped and looked in the arm. There were vials of some kind of liquid in it. Tony finally understood. The liquid was a drug that worked with the electrocution to keep Barnes from remembering his memories but he had built up a tolerance for the drug which allowed him to heal parts of his brain and remember some of his memories.  
Tony rushed and attached the neural transmitter arm base while Barnes was still out of it from the withdrawal of the drug. Barnes gasped as the base was fully attached.  
“I remember. I remember everything. I killed your parents. Why are you helping me,” Barnes lamented. Tony glared at Barnes and said, "Listen here, Barnes. What you did was not your fault. You didn’t have a choice the entire time HYDRA had you. I don’t blame you for their deaths. Now, while you recover, I’ll be working on the repulsor engines for SHIELD.” Tony made to turn around.  
Barnes grabbed Tony’s arm and shouted, “NO!” Tony looked at him and Barnes said, “HYDRA is within SHIELD. Those engines are going on the Project Insight helicarriers which are going to be used by HYDRA to take out threats to HYDRA and allow them to rule the world. Also, you can call me Bucky.”  
Tony fainted.

Tony managed to get all of the Avengers, sans Thor, and Fury and Hill to the Tower. He had sent them exclusive party invitations to a party hosted by him to celebrate the completion of “Avengers Tower.” What they wouldn’t know until they got there was that the party was a ruse to gather them all without alerting HYDRA that Tony knew about them and that Bucky was in the Tower.

In the three weeks it took to plan the party and get everyone to agree to come, Tony and Bucky spent every day together. Tony helped Bucky catch up on all the pop culture he had missed and Bucky made sure Tony was fed and watered. At times, Tony had an issue of being unable to look away from Bucky and focus on what they were doing. Tony knew that he didn’t deserve to be interested in Bucky. It was bittersweet attaching the new arm to the base. Bucky got the arm he needed but Tony didn’t have an excuse to touch him anymore.  
It took three days after attaching the arm and a week before the party for Bucky to drag Tony out of the workshop and say, “We need to talk.” Tony gulped. Nothing good came from those words. Bucky dropped him on one of the dining room chairs and sat across from him. Bucky sighed, “Why are you avoiding me? You have spent every day since attaching my new arm in the lab and not letting me in. Did I do something wrong?” Tony spluttered and rapidly said, “No, you did nothing wrong. It’s all on me. I realized a few things and needed to think by myself on them.” Bucky glared at Tony and said, “Would those things include the glances at me and the lingering touches when you took measurements for the arm? I know JARVIS could have done the measurements but you did them instead. Also, I may have been alive during the 40’s but that doesn’t mean I can’t like dicks as well as pussies. I hid my perversions from Steve. He looked up to me and I couldn’t let him down.”  
Tony turned ashen as Bucky continued to speak until he broke and said, “I don’t deserve you. I willingly sold weapons and people were killed by those weapons. You were forced to unwillingly murder all those people. HYDRA has the blood of the Winter Soldier’s kills on their hands; I have innocent blood on my hands because my weapons were sold to terrorists and I hadn’t bothered to check where my weapons were going. I’m guilty of killing-” Bucky kissed him. Tony mumphed and felt his teeth clack with Bucky's teeth. Bucky pulled Tony onto his lap while Tony tried to fight the kiss. Tony froze. That was not a gun in Bucky's pocket. Bucky felt Tony give in to the kiss. The kiss eventually turned into something very dirty that was moved to Tony’s room.

A week later, the Avengers and friends arrived. Fury pulled Tony aside and asked about the repulsor engines. Tony replied that he would find out during the party. As everyone arrived, they enjoyed Coca-Cola and hamburgers while waiting for the others to arrive. Natasha and Steve were wary. The party was unlike any Tony had thrown before. Something was wrong.  
After everyone was in the communal living space, Tony stood up on a chair and said, “I’m glad you all were able to make it here, but a party was not why I called you. This was a ruse so a third party wouldn’t know I was on to them. I will explain as soon as we move to a secure conference room.” Steve and Natasha looked at each other and nodded. If Tony was acting covert, then something was extremely wrong.  
After settling in at the conference table, Steve asked, "What is so wrong that has you acting covertly? This is not like you." The table agreed with Steve. Tony was acting strangely. Tony sighed and said, “Steve, do you remember on the Helicarrier when I said I had hacked SHIELD’s servers?” Steve nodded. “Well, I got a tip about something being wonky in SHIELD and went looking into that hack again. Yes, Steve, I still have an open hack into their servers. I found something and I did some more digging. Turns out, the tip I got was right and then some.” “What was the tip, Stark? Why would you also invite Fury and Hill to an Avengers meeting?” Natasha asked. “The tip I received implied that a terrorist organization had managed to infiltrate SHIELD to the highest reaches. I didn’t believe it at first until I went digging into the hack.”  
Fury said calmly, “That’s not possible. The verification system would have caught them.” Tony shot back, “Well, the terrorists have been in SHIELD for decades. They established themselves into the verification system so they could slip their agents past it.” Fury cursed. Fooled before sunrise. “This terrorist organization. What is it called?” Steve asked. Tony slumped and made the peace sign with his hand. A figure moved from behind a secret door. “I think you know what it’s called, Stevie. You fought against it before you were frozen,” A familiar voice said. Steve whipped around and saw Bucky Barnes, supposedly back from the dead.  
As Steve gaped, Natasha moved to attack Bucky but before she could get to him, Tony jumped in front of him and had a gauntlet in her face. Natasha growled, “Do you know who he is? He’s the Winter Soldier. He’s responsible for over a hundred deaths. He shot me and he trained me.” Tony glared, “He was brainwashed. He was repeatedly electrocuted to erase his memories and he had drugs in his old arm that worked with the electrocution to keep his brain from healing. He had no choice. He barely remembered Howard after accidentally seeing a video about him. He came to the Tower hoping to find answers from Howard but found me instead. I had to trick him in order to replace the arm. I did not enjoy having to do that. As soon as that HYDRA arm was removed, he got his memories back. I do not want him to relapse so fuck off.”  
Natasha gasped while Steve recovered and asked, "HYDRA?" Tony and Bucky turned to him and said, "Yes." Fury asked, "How?" Tony replied, "Operation Paperclip. The government forced the newly formed SHIELD to hire Arnim Zola. He regrew HYDRA within SHIELD.”  
Bruce had been quiet the entire meeting, observing what was happening, and noticed how protective Tony got of Bucky and how Bucky clung to Tony after Natasha tried to attack him. He suspected that there was more to Tony and Bucky’s relationship than someone trying to help another person. “Tony, how long has Bucky been in the Tower?” Bruce asked. Tony replied, “Four weeks. If you count this week that is.” Steve asked, “You didn’t tell me until now?” Bucky replied, “We wanted to tell everyone at the same time, Stevie. It was difficult getting you all to agree on a date to come to the Tower.” Bruce then asked, “Did something happen in the past month we need to know about? Tony, you’re too protective of Bucky and he’s been clinging to you since Natasha tried to attack him. The truth, Tony.”  
Tony and Bucky looked at each other and blushed. "BuckyandIaretogetherinaromanticrelationship," Tony mumbled. "English, Tony," Bruce said. "Bucky and I are together in a romantic relationship." Bucky had hunched up, expecting Steve to look at him in disgust. But Steve surprised them all. “It’s about time, Bucky. I knew about your liking of men when I caught you looking at Lewis Seagrass back before my mom died.” Bucky could only look at Steve in surprise.

Fury and Natasha agreed that SHIELD, and by default HYDRA, needed to be torn down. Natasha released all of SHIELD’s files onto the internet. When HYDRA came after Bucky, Tony gave them no quarter. No one was going to torture his boyfriend again.


	2. Art Work

<http://pin.it/Dge0X6B>

<http://pin.it/Heq8CFE>

AO3 will not let me post the actually images so links to Pinterest will have to do.

All artwork is credited to Alva Seneca. Thanks so much for helping me.


End file.
